"When you look at the prevalence of HIV in the African American community, it's primarily young women who are getting it from men who are on the down low," Hughley said.

Shepherd added, "It's so big in the black community with women because they're having sex with men who have been having sex with men."

The Variety ad, cosigned by the Black AIDS Institute and the National Black Justice Coalition, reads in part, "The Centers for Disease Control has publicly disproven this myth. And since June 22, thousands of people have written to ABC, asking that The View provide correct information to viewers. Unfortunately, those requests have been greeted with silence from both ABC and The View."